Council candidates include incumbents, activists

What makes Joe Celusta a good candidate for City Council is his compassion, the businessman said in a recent interview.

“It’s a matter of walking 10 miles in each person’s shoes,” he said. “I think my workability with Council and my memory and history makes me pretty good. I am not an experienced politician. I’m an experienced businessman.”

The first-time candidate calls himself a “jack of all trades and a master of none”; however, he was a business owner for several years and just recently was senior manager of a $1.5 billion company, TrueNorth Energy.

“Money and budgets I’m well versed in,” he said.

Celusta, 49, wants to be a City Council member “because we need a change,” he said. When Celusta’s employer wanted to build its headquarters in Toledo, the city didn’t just drop the ball — it never picked it up, he said. No one from the city responded to phone calls and the city lost a huge opportunity when TrueNorth built in Brecksville, Ohio, instead, he said.

“This is my hometown and nobody’s taking care of it,” he said. “They (City Council) take care of basic necessities but they’re not out working with citizens. They’re not keeping their ear to the ground.”

As a City Council member, Celusta said he would work on fixing Toledo’s many dilapidated homes by involving Habitat for Humanity. There are many that need to be razed, but he said many are repairable. City Council should pay attention to Tampa, Fla., he said, where they have dealt successfully with deteriorated neighborhoods.

Celusta will also work toward creating a master plan for Toledo’s utilities, something that is sadly lacking, he said. Right now, he believes water bills are at least 30 percent too high and nobody has a plan for how to reduce them.

“My bill for water is as expensive as gas and electric,” Celusta said. “There’s no direction whatsoever in the water department. There’s no transparency.”

If he wins, Celusta said he will work with companies to make sure they reinvest in schools, much like those in Maumee and Perrysburg.

“We need to put more money into schools,” he said.

Celusta is the fifth generation of his family in Toledo. His great-grandfather sat on City Council and his grandfather was Ollie Czelusta, Toledo mayor in the 1950s. His father was a district attorney and assistant law director for the city and his mother taught ESL for Toledo Public Schools (TPS).

Celusta talked about some of the things that made Toledo great, like The Toledo Plan. He said the city was once ranked 13th among the top wealthiest cities and is now ranked 165th among the poorest. “How do you go from richest to poorest?” he said. He promised to work to make the city great again.

“I want to use the (same) tools to build a new foundation. I want to bring Toledo to its golden age,” he said. “We don’t have reciprocity any more. We’ve lost all our ethics and I want to bring that back to Toledo.

“It’s about bringing Toledo back to Toledo and I think that Council is just paying the bills right now. And it’s time for Council to get active.” O

— Danielle Stanton

William Delaney

William Delaney

A new name on the ballot this year is not unfamiliar to the people of Toledo. William Delaney ran his own business for 28 years and now that he’s retired, he wants to turn his efforts to the city.

“I don’t want to be a politician; I’m a businessman,” Delaney said. “There’s a lot of problems we have here and I’d like to have a chance to put my two cents in and try to straighten things up.”

He has attended City Council meetings for more than a decade, and said he is running as an independent candidate. He said because of this, he is not beholden to the unions or political parties and he will not vote based on those groups’ beliefs.

“People know me in this town, know that I fight for their rights,” he said. “I’m honest, I can be trusted. I dig into things. … I have time now to look hard at some situations in town and go to places that sometimes politicians don’t go to.”

Delaney said the people of Toledo have been forgotten, and he wants to make a difference for them.

“I want to work with the attitude and appearance of this community,” he said. “We need to get people friendly again.”

He suggested putting people in underprivileged parts of the city to work cleaning, painting and restoring their neighborhoods. He said that would improve Toledo’s image and give people work at the same time.

Another issue he feels needs addressed is small business fees.

“I have an issue with fees in this town,” he said. “We are being feed to death as small businesses. They’re unnecessary.”

Delaney said small businesses in Toledo pay an annual fire inspection fee that businesses in other Ohio cities do not pay.

“[The Bell administration] keeps saying they want to do this one-stop shop and I haven’t seen it,” he said. “People want to get things done and are stymied by fees. It’s just a money grab by the city.”

Money is Delaney’s biggest reason for running. He said he wants to find out where the taxpayers’ money is going and he wants to tell the public. The current government is not transparent enough for him.

“It’s being wasted,” he said. “Our money has been thrown away. We’ve spent $79.2 million on companies that don’t exist, have never gotten started or have just left town and left us holding the bag. … It’s surprising how much money has been spent in this community. We need to spend it on the people.”

— Holly Tuey

Theresa Gabriel

Theresa Gabriel

Independent Theresa Gabriel has nearly 50 years of experience in city government. She said her experience will make her a good voice for seniors.

“Seniors need a voice and deserve a voice on Toledo City Council and I want to be that voice,” Gabriel said in a recent telephone interview. “That doesn’t mean I won’t serve all other voices, but that is my passion.”

A longtime Republican, Gabriel, 76, began in city government in 1963 and has worked for eight mayors. She served as assistant chief of staff, director of human resources and director of parks and recreation. She was commissioner of Street, Bridges & Harbor and clerk for Toledo Municipal Court. She retired in 2005 but returned when Carty Finkbeiner was re-elected mayor that same year.

She said she is not content to just sit behind a desk and give directives. She credits her hard work ethic for her success in city government.

“I started as a clerk, making barely $200 a month, so I was moving on up the ladder,” she said. “I didn’t just walk through the door and become a commissioner; I had to work for it.

“I love working. I enjoy working with people. That’s just my nature. I’m a people person. I’m a hard taskmaster. I’m not just a person to sit behind a desk and tell you what to do.”

Gabriel is running on a platform of public safety, rebuilding infrastructure and revitalizing neighborhoods.

Seniors deserve to have safe neighborhoods and should not be afraid to leave their homes at night, she said. Part of that is making sure young people have jobs and are gainfully occupied.

A good Council member needs to care about dilapidated houses in the entire city, not just in their district, she said.

“I detest when people compare Toledo to Detroit. I detest that,” she said. “Detroit is a metropolis and Toledo is a middle-class city. The idea is to make sure that Toledo never becomes a Detroit.”

Gabriel also has more than 20 years’ experience as a business owner. She ran the Peacock Café in UpTown for 22 years before turning it over to her son in 2007. She was the first female president of AFSCME Local 2058 and has more than 30 years’ experience with organized labor. She is also a volunteer for the NAACP.

“It seems to me society has changed,” Gabriel said. “It’s all about the almighty dollar. You should be compensated enough to pay your bills and maintain your property but someone has got to help those that can’t. I don’t believe in negative politics,” she said. “I believe I can offer some recommendations and some ideas that would be different than what I’m hearing or reading in the media.”

Gabriel said she originally planned to run for mayor but her 97-year-old mother influenced her to run for City Council.

“Mother said, ‘You should run for City Council and help senior citizens. And I thought about it and said, ‘You’re right.’ Since I have this knowledge and experience, I said, ‘Mom, that’s what I’ll do.’”

— Danielle Stanton

Adam Martinez

Adam Martinez

South Toledoan Adam Martinez hopes to retain his at-large Council seat. A native Toledoan and graduate of Lourdes College, Martinez said he became politically involved as a child and has been committed to public service since.

Martinez said he is proud of what he has accomplished during his time on Council.

“I was an advocate for small businesses, bringing lending when no financial institution would,” Martinez said. “Above all, I was able to work with my fellow colleagues to get things done, and I want to continue to serve.”

One platform issue Martinez is paying close attention to is neighborhood redevelopment. As the owner of a rental property in Toledo, Martinez said he sees firsthand the necessity of reinvesting money into struggling neighborhoods.

“People need to have a livable place to live, and I always try to practice what I preach. We need to encourage more people to do that,” Martinez said.

He said he plans to focus on what he calls “legacy neighborhoods,” areas that are historically important to the city but are now struggling with blight.

“It’s essential to revitalize neighborhoods,” Martinez said. “My first four years [on Council] were focused on economic development issues, and over the past few months I started working on big-picture neighborhood issues.”

Martinez said the key to turning neighborhoods around are what he calls DINKs, or those in households with a double income and no kids. He said that by incentivizing reinvestment in legacy neighborhoods and corridors across the city, Toledo can attract DINKs and turn neighborhoods around.

Martinez said he was happy with his showing in the primary, and felt confident about his chances before making an announcement last week that he was supporting Mayor Mike Bell in the mayoral race.

“I’d like to believe I will keep my seat, but it depends on voter turnout,” Martinez said. “Since endorsing Bell, I’ve seen an uptick across party lines.”

And while Martinez would like to win on a personal level, he said it isn’t about his own victory.

“I really enjoy public service and I can’t imagine doing anything else. I don’t do this for the money. But it’s up to the voters to decide if they want to renew my contract,” Martinez said.

— Bailey G. Dick

Jack Ford

Jack Ford

The candidate with the biggest office on their resume is former Mayor Jack Ford. Ford served as Toledo’s mayor from 2002-06, and was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives for seven years. Ford has also held a seat on the Toledo Public Schools Board of Education.

After a strong showing in the September primary, Ford is hoping to have a similarly successful result in this week’s election.

He said he believes voters are attracted to his years of experience in government.

“I have experience working at different levels of government, and I’m going to use that experience to make informed decisions while I am on Council, in relation to policy decisions and budget,” Ford said.

Many politicians with dozens of years of experience might consider throwing in the towel. But not Ford. He decided to run again after seeing prevailing issues facing Toledo.

“I saw the deterioration of housing in the older neighborhoods, and no one else was talking about it. I decided to make blight a big issue in my campaign, and in a way, it has become one of the big issues in this election,” Ford said.

In addition to fighting blight, Ford said there are other things he is focusing on as well.

“Financial management of taxpayer funds is always a big issue. Cutting red tape is a big issue for business people who want to start or to continue to grow a business inside Toledo. And we don’t have coordinated efforts on youth programs and crime reduction,” Ford said.

And while Ford said his experience will play to his advantage, he was quick to point out that fresh ideas are needed in government as well.

“I’ve had the broadest experience of anyone running, and experience counts. Some of the decisions made in the future need someone with history to base their decisions on. My experience will help with that, but you need a mix of experience and new people with new ideas,” Ford said.

— Bailey G. Dick

Sean Nestor

Sean Nestor

Sean Nestor is an Information Technologies professional and Green Party candidate. Nestor made it past the primary in September and said he has been campaigning at a grassroots level during the past several months.

Nestor said despite placing 12th in the primary, he is proud of his showing.

“You can always be better, but I was happy to be the first Green Council candidate to get past the primary,” he said. “One of my goals was to help build resources for the party, and I was endorsed by the Police Patrolman’s Association and the Toledo Firefighters Local 92.”

Nestor said endorsements and support, despite not being a member of a major party, gave him a boost of confidence.

“It was great news to receive, and some of the biggest motivators to keep going. They knew that we were not fringe candidates screaming weird messages, but that we were running a serious campaign with serious issues,” Nestor said.

Some of those issues include taking care of streets, sewers, water treatment facilities and water resources.

“Businesses don’t want to come to a town with potholes, sinkholes and boil advisories,” Nestor said.

Nestor said he would be a “watchdog on the budget,” who would fight to know details of emergency funding bills before voting on them.

Keeping with his Green Party roots, Nestor said he hoped to promote community gardens in the city, following the example of the urban agriculture happening in Cleveland.

“It would give people something to do to prevent blight,” Nestor said. “A lot of groups are engaging in this, but we could create a zoning designation, and make sure those places have protection by the city.”

Nestor said he is most proud of his fundraising efforts during his campaign. He said he has refused to accept money from PACs or special interest groups, and will only take money from individuals. He said he has raised about $13,000 so far.

Nestor said he knows it’s tough for a candidate to jump from 12th place to sixth in the election, but he will use what he has learned from the race in the future.

“I plan to persist with my ideas, keep an eye on Council, and call them on issues when they mess up,” Nestor said. “I have built a good relationship with the candidates already, and that will persist after the election.”

— Bailey G. Dick

James Nowak

James Nowak

A lifelong Toledoan and small business lawyer, James Nowak said he is in touch with average citizens. Nowak is a Point Place resident who is a neighborhood business association president and is involved with economic development on Lagrange Street.

Nowak said he decided to run after seeing Toledo’s loss of population, as well as loss of businesses.

“If we don’t do something, they’ll turn off the lights because all the jobs and people are in the suburbs,” Nowak said. “We need to make it easier for people to do business in the city. City workers need to be a friend to help, not fine people. A lot of people say the city doesn’t care about them, so they move.”

Nowak said his knowledge of small businesses will help change the city’s economic future, and that he hopes to hold government accountable for providing essential services.

“One of my pledges is to make sure government is accountable to everybody. We need to fix roads and potholes, and we need to provide good police protection,” Nowak said.

He said an incident in his Point Place neighborhood spurred his interest in running for Council. One night this summer, Nowak said, graffiti popped up in the neighborhood overnight and residents became concerned about a lack of police presence. Nowak said the idea of hiring a private security company to patrol city streets seemed absurd to him.

Nowak said everyday concerns like his are driving businesses and residents out of the city.

“I’ve run my own little business and I’ve lived in the city all my life. I understand what average people and small businesses need and want,” he said. “People are just trying to live and make a living in a city that is really great. And people who come in from out of town are really impressed with the city. We just need to improve our own self-image.”

— Bailey G. Dick

Steve Steel

Steve Steel

Steve Steel, a native of Oregon, is one of the four incumbents running for re-election to Toledo City Council.

Steel, a Democrat, has served on City Council since 2009, appointed to replace Mark Sobczak in July 2009 and retaining his seat in the general election later that year.

Before joining Toledo City Council, Steel, who holds a master’s degree in education and a Ph.D in American culture studies from Bowling Green State University, was elected to the board of education for TPS in 2005, serving as board president from 2006-09.

As chair of the Youth, Parks, Recreation, Community Relations and Education Committee, Steel has made city beautification a top priority during his four years as councilman at-large.

“We looked at new or improving existing recreational opportunities in the city parks in order to provide things that people in Toledo want to do. Specifically, we worked to revitalize youth programs in the city,” Steel said.

Steel has also been influential in implementing Toledo’s Complete Streets program, a new method for planning the city’s infrastructure improvements that not only takes into account automobile traffic but also pedestrian, bicycle and mass transit needs.

“Perhaps the biggest thing I’ve been working on for a long time, and it’s finally getting under way, is Toledo Business Express,” Steel said.

Modeled after NYC Business Express, Toledo Business Express will provide a user-friendly online portal for business owners to quickly and easily look up things like city ordinances, how to get or renew a permit or how to pay a fee.

“If you’re a business owner thinking of moving your operation to Toledo or if you want to, say, open a coffee shop Downtown, this will tell you what you have to do. You don’t have to come Downtown or come to Government Center. You can do this from your desk.”

Toledo is currently competing for a $100,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Development to implement the plan.

During the past four years, particularly early in his tenure when the city’s financial hardship was greatest, Steel said he worked with fellow Councilmen George Sarantou and Tom Waniewski to “go line by line” to trim the city’s budget.

“We squeezed about $2 million to make it as tight as possible,” he said.

Steel also wrote legislation that altered a renewal for the Council members’ desktop computers to get them laptops instead.

“A city government goes through an unbelievable amount of paper. We’re now able to take our computers with us into meetings, and we don’t have to print off things like agendas. It makes us much more efficient and cost-effective.”

Steel also voted to put all city records online so citizens can look up forms, ordinances and past Council meeting minutes from home without using paper.

Looking ahead, Steel said he wants to address what he calls the “baseline issues” affecting Toledo, such as job growth, quality city services and public safety. In Steel’s view, the best way to accomplish this is to “make Toledo an eminently livable city” by making it walkable and bike-friendly.

“Where we compete with other cities is with our assets that make people want to live here, like the symphony, the museum, the zoo, the waterfront, our sports and our low cost of living. These are major selling points for our city,” he said. Specifically, Steel believes the city should focus on making Toledo a place where young professionals and “creatives” want to live.

One way the city has started doing this is by working with The Arts Commission to get artists involved via financial incentives in Toledo’s infrastructure improvements, such as artist-designed bike racks and the Toledo Poetry Sidewalks project.

“Why does every sidewalk or crosswalk have to look the same? Why can’t we make them interesting and unique? This will make our city more interesting, unique and ultimately more attractive,” Steel said.

— Kevin Moore

Larry Sykes

Larry Sykes

Decades spent in politics and working to benefit the community have led Larry Sykes to Toledo City Council, where he, like many others, is hoping to make a difference.

Sykes is a retired vice president of community affairs for Fifth Third Bank, but that is only part of his story. He has served on the TPS Board of Education for the past 14 years, and said he worked on campaigns for former Toledo Mayor Jack Ford and Rep. Marcy Kaptur.

“I’m the best qualified to run,” Sykes said. “My life has been dedicated to public service. … I have a plan to improve the quality of life for the citizens of Toledo. Everything I’ve done has been in that direction — to improve quality of life for the citizens.”

Sykes said his experience and knowledge will lend themselves to his goal to serve the public. Although he is leaving the school board, he has made contacts there he believes will help him should he move on to City Council.

If elected, Sykes said he wants to work on creating jobs for Toledoans of all ages. He said he will reach out to local, regional and national companies to bring opportunities to the Glass City. For small businesses, he has plans for cutting tax rates.

“For businesses with less than 50 people, we could look at cutting taxes in half for the first two years and then reassessing after that,” he said. “That gives them the opportunity to hire more people.”

He said he also wants to focus on opportunities for young people in their teens and early 20s. He said he would look into what the job market is calling for and then direct the city’s youth in those directions.

Sykes said as a member of City Council, he would seek an increase in police and fire staffing, to be paid for by reallocating funds already in the city. He said he does not plan to raise taxes.

“I’d like to focus the city’s resources on the scourge that is domestic violence,” he said.

Sykes said his plan to raise money for the city is to increase the tax base by focusing on economic development. Helping people find work and purchase homes is all part of that plan.

Sykes said he has the time to talk to residents and has a hands-on approach to serving the people of Toledo.

— Holly Tuey

EDITOR’S NOTE: Council candidate Shaun Enright did not participate in interviews with Toledo Free Press.

“I’m like him times 100 — mixed with a little Iyanla Vanzant, Oprah and Bishop T.D. Jakes or Dr. Phil,” Mallette said, laughing. “What I do really stems from what Will was doing in the movie. I’ve just really enhanced it.”

The self-taught relationship expert will offer a new workshop, “Secrets Every Man Should Know to Make His Woman Happy,” at 7 p.m. Oct. 4 at Maumee Indoor Theatre, 601 Conant St.

“I’m going to tell men in man language what women are trying to tell them in women language and it’s not working,” Mallette said.

Cost is $15 for one ticket or $25 for two tickets. Tickets are available at the offices of The Toledo Journal, 3021 Douglas Road; Promises Hair & Nail Salon, 3205 W. Central Ave.; or Powell’s Beauty Supply, 901 Nebraska Ave. Part of the proceeds will go to Project Genesis, a program of Family Service of Northwest Ohio, to fight domestic violence.

The workshop is open to all.

“The title of this one insinuates it’s just for men, but it’s for men and women,” Mallette said. “And it’s not just for couples either. A lot of this stuff will work in basic relationships with family or friends.”

Mallette regularly advises men to be students of their significant other.

“I’m a huge advocate of men studying who their woman is. You should be doing that all the time,” Mallette said. “You can’t be lazy to be in a relationship. You’ve got to want to master her. It’s fun. It’s just work.”

A woman needs to be seduced emotionally, intellectually, sexually, spiritually and physically, he said.

“If you can tap into all five of those areas at the same time, where you are feeding her mind, her emotions, all that, you become the greatest super-being that she’s ever met and vice versa,” he said, laughing. “It’s not as hard as people think.”

At the workshop, Mallette will address what he calls the Triple A’s.

“The most basic things you have to do for a woman on a daily basis — and it takes maybe one to four minutes per day — is you have to give her in some way affection, attention or appreciation,” Mallette said. “You don’t have to be doing all three, but you have to be doing at least one of those per day.”

The tendency of women to talk more than men will also be addressed.

“Most men, when women be blah blah blah, think, ‘Why is she just talking? Will you please shut up?’” Mallette said. “I’m going to explain to men how when a woman is talking to you she’s trying to connect with you and what that connection and that intimacy means.”

Samology

Mallette’s path to relationship expert was forged in an unlikely place — divorce. He and his wife of seven years split in 2003.

“Divorce is pretty rare in my family. There’s very few of us that ever got divorced. My parents just celebrated their 46th anniversary,” Mallette said. “Normally when people go through dramatic things like that they either say, ‘Well, I hate all women,’ or ‘Let me find out what really happened.’”

Mallette chose the second route.

“At first I had to do my own introspection. I examined me, I examined what she did, what I did and then what we did together, bad, good and ugly,” he said. “That’s what started me on this journey.”

Mallette followed with observation of and research on human behavior, both of which led to the development of the set of philosophies he now refers to as Samology. He calls his workshops the Sambition series.

The Oct. 4 presentation will be the third talk in the series. The first addressed why men cheat and the second was “Secrets Every Woman Should Know About Men.” During the second seminar, Mallette highlighted respect, ego and the visual.

“I don’t think women really understand how far that goes in a man,” Mallette said. “No. 4 would be sex.”

He said all his presentations are humorous and interactive.

“I like for my audience to talk back. Sometimes I might point you out. We have a lot of fun,” Mallette said. “I love to give people theory and then give them practical application. When you get up from the seat, you can immediately put this into practice.”

Mallette said he hopes attendees leave more hopeful than they arrive.

“Divorce rates are so high and women don’t believe there are good men out there and men don’t believe there are good women,” he said. “I want them to realize there is hope and then once you get it, you can really make it work and have fun doing it.”

Mallette, a graduate of Macomber-Whitney Vocational Technical High School, will soon debut a column for Toledo Free Press. He has a bachelor’s degree international business and business management from Lourdes College, a master’s in higher education administration from the University of Toledo and a doctorate of divinity from the School of Bible Theology Seminary and University in California.

Sylvania group seeks funds for school athletic facilities

The Sylvania Schools Athletic Foundation is planning a $6.5 million renovation for the athletic facilities of five Sylvania schools. The foundation’s list includes Northview and Southview High Schools and Arbor Hills, McCord and Timberstone junior high schools.

The Foundation plans to raise $4.5 million in private funds to finish the renovations and is seeking an additional $2 million to establish an endowment fund for Sylvania’s athletic and extracurricular activities. The tentative timetable is to begin building in 2012 and complete the facilities in the winter of 2013.

“We have a tremendous group of individuals including community leaders, parents and business professionals that are committed to getting this done,” Superintendent Brad Rieger said. “They buy into the vision that we really are building the next generation of champions. Facilities are really just a platform to let kids shine in different ways. These are challenging times, but we are a committed group and we are ready to get it done.”

John Ross, foundation board chairman, said people in Sylvania know how important education is.

“They know how important it is to support schools and support kids. We are talking about a multigenerational impact for our community.

“This project is about kids. There are over 8,000 kids in Sylvania schools and to know that they will have an opportunity to compete, play and participate in great schools with great athletic facilities is really exciting.”

What does $6.5 million buy?

Northview will add new field turf (for football and soccer), bleachers (for baseball, football and soccer) and field lights (for baseball and football). The school will also add an eight-lane, all-weather track-and-field events area, a ticket booth and a facility for concessions and restrooms.

Southview will add new field turf, bleachers, home stands and a press box for the football field, as well as portable stands for the band and a facility for concessions and restrooms. Southview also will add new bleachers for baseball and softball and additional soccer seating.

Northview and Southview will also add 32-foot scoreboards, which include a 10-foot-by-17-foot video screen and five different spaces to sell advertisements.

Arbor Hills and McCord will have their football fields upgraded to include irrigation and drainage as well as lights, an electronic scoreboard, a press box and an eight-lane track. Timberstone will receive mounding and screening for wind protection and fencing.

Challenges

Among the major problems with the schools’ current arrangement is Northview having to share its football field with Southview. Although Southview has a field, it is limited to freshman and junior varsity play due to a small bleacher area.

“Right now the issue is we have both of our varsity football teams playing at one field,” Rieger said. “There are significant scheduling and logistical issues. There are obviously issues with Northview wanting their own place and Southview wanting their own place but it’s even beyond that. We want separate facilities so we can expand the utilization into different activities, sports and community organizations.”

A rendering of the proposed Sylvania Northview High School football field and stadium.

The foundation plans to allow such organizations as Lourdes College, Sylvania Recreation and the Catholic Youth Organization youth tournament to use the facilities. Foundation Executive Director Jeanette Hrovatich said they hope to draw a national tournament to their facilities in the future.

Reaching private donors

To fund the $6.5 million project, the foundation is turning to private donors. Although the process is described as being at “the ground level,” the foundation’s goal is to raise $1 million during September. Hrovatich said the foundation is in discussions with about 40 donors.

“When you look across the country, I see no one else attempting to do what we are doing in a district with two public high schools to raise private money to help keep these extracurriculars available for kids,” Ross said. “This is cutting-edge. Things are going to change in how schools are financed. The time to involve the private sector into this has come. It is going to be very successful and a new way to look at things.”

The idea for turning to private donors came in 2005 when the board for Sylvania Schools began to look at rebuilding some of its facilities. At that time, it determined that taxpayers were growing weary of increased taxes and decided that private funding would be the best course of action. It created the Sylvania Schools Athletic Foundation in November 2005 to begin the process of raising private funds for athletics, hoping it would transition to continual tax levy support that would go directly to classrooms.

“I got a sense, along with the community, that for us to accomplish some things with our outdoor facilities we needed to go a different way with a different approach,” Rieger said. “That’s when this idea of raising money in a private fashion, for seeking corporate and individual donors to fund the enhancements, really germinated.”

To help raise $6.5 million, the foundation created an Advancement Council consisting of 42 community volunteers whose sole goal is to focus on the fundraising aspects and donor development. Among those volunteers is Jim Findlay, retired from his position as president of Impact Products, who serves as one of the council’s three honorary chairmen along with Rieger and Rick Stansley, chairman of the board of Innovation Enterprises, the University of Toledo’s economic development arm.

“Sylvania is a great area,” Findlay said. “We have great hospitals, schools and industry. I’m very interested in academics but I’m extremely interested in sports because it builds character and principles. It’s hard for me not to be a part of something that’s for the youth. It’s hard for me to say no.”

A rendering of the proposed Sylvania Southview High School athletic complex.

Findlay, who has experience as a youth basketball coach and mentor, assisted at the University of Toledo in finding donors for the Savage Arena renovations. He is retired from his position as president of Impact Products.

“We would like to give everybody in the Sylvania area an opportunity to be a part of this,” Findlay said. “That’s what we are trying to do — get the industry and residents to be a part of this school system. People will move into this area because we have great schools and great facilities. This will be great for the community.”

The foundation has formed a women’s initiative group, “Girls with Goals” (GWG), which is attempting to raise money for the facilities. So far GWG, which is still accepting new members, consists of 25 women from the Sylvania community. Its next meeting is at 6 p.m. Aug. 17 at the Chandler Café, 5648 N. Main St. in Sylvania.

How to give to Sylvania Athletics

To donate and help the Sylvania Schools Athletic Foundation raise money for Northview and Southview high schools, as well as Arbor Hills, McCord and Timberstone junior high schools, visit www.SupportSylvaniaAthletics.com (web site will be live soon). The website offers options to donate through PayPal or by sending in a pledge card, which can be printed from a PDF online. You can also contact Hrovatich at (419) 824-8656. The foundation accepts donations of any amount; donation levels from as low as $10,000 and as high as $5 million include varying rewards and recognition.

Foundation: Violations will not deter effort

The Sylvania Schools Athletic Foundation’s renewal project faced a scare when it learned Aug. 5 that Northview and Southview had received sanctions from the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) on its football programs because of recruiting violations. With the sanctions occurring while they were in conversations with donors, there was some worry that they may have negatively impacted some donors’ decisions about giving.

“It was a concern because sometimes people don’t understand the nature of everything that happens in a district or a community but we have gotten a really great response,” said Foundation Executive Director Jeanette Hrovatich said. “We continue to meet with people this week and next week. We are excited by the opportunity to continue to work on this project.”

Among the violations, Northview Athletic Director Chris Irwin was found to have violated an OHSAA bylaw when he gave new head coach Marek Moldawsky Jr. a list of eighth grade students from the three Sylvania junior high schools so he could contact them and try to keep them at Northview. The OHSAA reprimanded Irwin.

At Southview, head coach Jim Mayzes was found to have violated an OHSAA bylaw when he inquired where a student would go to high school while at McCord Junior High School. Southview was placed on a two-year probation and was fined $500.

“It did involve recruiting but it was within the context of Sylvania,” Superintendent Brad Rieger said. “We weren’t recruiting kids from Whitmer, Springfield or Bedford. It stems from our coaches that are very passionate about their programs and want kids to experience the great things that are happening at their programs. I want that in coaches, but they might have been a bit overzealous with how they acted.

“It was inappropriate. We will learn from it and get some training in place to make sure the expectations are spelled out clearly for everyone.”

Despite the violations, the foundation sees the upcoming renewal project as a good way to bounce back and make up for the athletic department’s mistakes.

“Anytime something negative or bad happens you can use that opportunity to grow from it and that’s what we are going to do,” Rieger said. “This new project is about creating projects for kids and building champions.”

Nursing today more high-tech, patient-centric

With a career in nursing spanning more than 30 years, Gladeen Roberts has watched new mindsets and technological advancements transform the way patient care is provided.

As president of Nursing Excellence at ProMedica, Roberts is charged with integrating nursing practices at all ProMedica facilities to ensure a uniform standard of care. She spearheads collaboration internally among facilities as well as externally with area nursing colleges. The position, created last year, is one of only a handful of similar jobs nationwide.

“I always thought I just wanted to take care of people and I am still, but different kinds of people, not always people in beds,” Roberts said.

Gladeen Roberts

One of the biggest evolutions for the nursing field has been technology, Roberts said.

“In the past, processes took a little longer, but in some ways that was nice because you were hanging an IV or doing a tube feeding and you had to sit there and you talked to the patient at the bedside,” Roberts said. “Now everything’s automated so you go to the machine.”

“It transmits over so we can call the patient and say ‘You forgot to weigh yourself today’ and when he does, we can see if it’s a critical value or not and we can call his doctor,” Roberts said.

Adopting a more patient-centered focus has been another major shift, Roberts said.

“In the ’70s, a lot of what we did was based on what physicians wanted. If they wanted daily weights done before they came in, we’d wake the patient at 5:30 in the morning,” Roberts said. “Now we’re about what’s best for that patient, not what’s best for the nurse or the doctor. That’s a different thought process than we’ve had in the past.”

Patients are more complex today, said Judy Didion, dean of nursing at Lourdes College.

“When I went to nursing school, patients were not as sick as they are today. Now there’s more technology to keep people alive longer and improve their quality of life,” Didion said.

“The kind of patients we may have cared for in a hospital are now in skilled care or home care. Hospitals are for the very critically ill, so everything is more complex.”

Today’s nurses specialize in areas like cardiology or orthopedics and their insight is valuable, Roberts said.

“We’re relying a lot more on the nurse at the bedside to identify the problems and improve the care than we ever did in the past,” Roberts said. “They’re closest to the patient, they make the biggest difference, so let’s empower them.”

Nurses are no longer found in just hospitals but in a variety of settings, such as hospice, insurance offices and physician’s offices.

The face of nursing has also changed.

There are more male nurses and more women in leadership roles than ever before, Roberts said.

Because of delayed retirements, nurses are also more diverse in age, Didion said. It can be tricky to help a multigenerational staff appreciate each other’s strengths — experienced nurses tend to be more intuitive, while recent graduates are typically better with technology — while also managing their differing expectations, she said.

Care navigators

One way health systems, including ProMedica and Mercy, are addressing the increasing complexity of health care is by developing navigator programs.

Navigators — like Lisa Helminski at Toledo Hospital — are nurses who work closely with patients to guide them through the system. Navigators can answer questions about procedures, medication and next steps, remind patients to set up appointments, advocate on their behalf and much more.

Lisa Helminski

“It’s a wonderful model. We’re looking at the whole picture as a puzzle and putting all the pieces together,” Helminski said. “We work with bedside nurses, physicians and social workers right beside them. It’s a huge team approach. We’re very much an advocate for the patient and family. We have time to go in and talk to patients more than the bedside nurses do. I think it’s just an awesome program, I really do.”

Not all patients are assigned navigators. Candidates include those with chronic diseases, those whose condition requires many specialists or those without family.

Helminski recalled a patient who had a chronic condition and was told his insurance would no longer cover his specialist, so the man quit going to the doctor, visiting emergency rooms instead.

“When he came here I saw that was a problem for him and worked with his insurance case manager to find a physician that would take him and also set up home care for when he went home,” Helminski said. “He was very grateful and we ended up hugging at the end.

That was someone who could have fallen through the cracks before because it took a lot of work to put it all together.”

ProMedica has 30 care navigators in its hospital system, including outpatient facilities. Mercy’s five navigators work with breast issues in the women’s centers at St. Vincent, St. Anne and St. Charles as well as with cancer patients at St. Anne and St. Charles.

Future demand

With the average age of Ohio nurses at 47, and 40 percent indicating in surveys they plan to retire, demand for nurses will be greater than ever in the next 10 years, Roberts said. Nationally, a shortage of between 300,000 and 1 million nurses is predicted in the next decade — with even the low figure three times higher than any U.S. nursing shortage in the past 50 years, Roberts said.

The nonprofit Institute of Medicine, which conducts research and offers health care policy advice, is calling for greater percentages of nurses to hold bachelor’s and doctorate degrees by 2020.

“Patients are becoming more diverse and you really have to have the education and critical thinking to be able to deliver the right care to the right patient at the right time,” Roberts said.

However, although the profession has changed, the cornerstone of nursing has remained the same, Roberts said.

“The essential reason we exist is to give the safest and best possible care to our patients and that has been true ever since I started working in nursing,” she said.

Commissioner Wozniak announces College Coach program

Lucas County Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak and officials from Toledo Public Schools, Toledo Federation of Teachers, Toledo Community Foundation and Partners in Education announced plans for the Committed College Coach Program at a press conference at Grove Patterson Academy on March 21.

The program aims to help fifth-grade students from Sherman Elementary and Grove Patterson Academy find a “college coach,” a mentor that will commit to help them along their educational journey until they are sophomores in college. Together with the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, Lourdes College and Owens Community College, students will have the resources and help to continue their path to college.

“We really want more and more young people to attend college,” Wozniak said. “We want all of you to attend college. That’s our goal. That’s our dream.”

Wozniak said only about 14 percent of Lucas County adult residents have a bachelor’s degree. She approached TPS and other partners to help boost that rate starting with the youth. Toledo Community Foundation is contributing about half of the funding needed for the pilot program with the rest of the funding expected from the State of Ohio through Jobs and Family Services. Initial costs are estimated at about $43,500 for a program director and material fees.

Fifth grade teachers from both elementary schools were already trained to help with the program and, eventually, the guidance counselors will be as well. In seventh grade, the guidance counselors will become involved and the students will start visiting colleges.

At the press conference, the first coach and student declaration was signed by Terrina White and her daughter, Nakiya White.

White is an employee and graduate of the University of Toledo and said she hopes that the program not only helps young students attend college, but also motivates their coaches, who might not have gone or might not have finished college, to go back and finish their degree.

Owens students can earn Lourdes business degrees

A new partnership will allow Owens Community College students to earn a Bachelor of Science four-year degree from Lourdes College beginning in the fall.

“We are thrilled to provide Owens Community College students the opportunity to take their first steps toward a bachelor’s degree at Lourdes College on the Toledo-area campus,” said Renay Scott, executive vice president and provost of Owens Community College, in a news release.

Students who enroll in the program can choose from eight business majors, including accounting, accounting and finance, business administration, health care administration, human resource management, integrated business, marketing and management.

They will pursue the majority of their Lourdes credit hours in College Hall on the Owens Toledo-area campus, but be taught by Lourdes faculty.

“This is a unique partnership in that it connects a public institution with a private institution — but the connection is really a perfect match,” said Janet Robinson, vice president for academic affairs at Lourdes College, in a news release. “Both Lourdes and Owens place a strong emphasis on affordability and personalized attention. We have a long history of working together to ensure student success, and this is a terrific continuation of that effort.”

Eligible students who transfer to Lourdes to complete their degree receive Pathways scholarships — renewable merit-based awards that provide up to $2,000 of tuition assistance per year.

Open houses for the program will take place March 23 from noon to 2 p.m. and April 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. in the College Hall Atrium at Owens’ Toledo-area campus.

Lourdes College makes intercollegiate athletic debut

After more than a year of planning, scouting and practicing, Lourdes College in Sylvania has stepped into the world of intercollegiate athletics.

This fall, with the Gray Wolves as its nickname, the school’s first women’s volleyball team posted a winning record in its inaugural season. Men’s and women’s golf teams also competed in their respective first seasons.

Roseanne Gill-Jacobson, vice president for student life and athletic director at Lourdes College, said the program has provided opportunity for the student athletes to be successful in many ways.

“Life lessons are learned in a lot of ways and athletics teach a lot of those lessons that follow you the rest of your life,” she said.

In addition to golf and women’s volleyball seasons, Lourdes College is seeing its first men’s basketball team in action. Andre Smith, the head coach of the team, said he is excited and proud of the team as it stands, even though it was sometimes a challenge during the recruiting process.

“It was like selling a new product. We had to get people to buy into something brand new,” he said. “I give a lot of credit to the kids who took a chance on this new program.”

With players from all across the United States and even a few from outside the country, Smith said his recruiting efforts took on a wide scope.

“To be a great program, you have to look outside the immediate area and bring in different styles. Of course we wanted to keep Toledo’s talent in Toledo,” he said.

Before coming on as the coach of Lourdes College’s first men’s basketball team, Smith played at the collegiate in the United States and at professional levels in Europe. These experiences, he said, have helped him build a rapport with his new team.

“When you’ve played, they look at you differently. They know you’ve been through the trenches and been through everything you’re having them go through,” he said. “It helps the overall relationship.”

Smith said the opportunity to work with his team as students and athletes is the best aspect of his job as a coach.

“At [the college] level it’s all about the kids. You get to watch them grow on and off the court into positive people,” he said.

Gill-Jacobson agreed that Lourdes’ students are benefitting from the addition of athletics.

“This has just been an opportunity for our students to grow on campus. It has enhanced spirit, and the atmosphere has made campus even more fun,” she said. “It’s been really exciting.”

Within the next few years, the college plans to boast between 10 and 15 athletic teams. Baseball and women’s basketball will start next year, while men’s volleyball will start next spring.

Other sports will be added depending on the college’s athletic conference and other opportunities afforded to the school. The school is part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

“We plan to add two sports a year until we have all we want,” said Gill-Jacobson.

Smith said the chance to be the first coach of the first men’s basketball team at the college has been thrilling in spite of the challenges.

“The only thing we can do is improve. These kids get to be part of history,” he said.

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Lourdes helps local man get into cruise business

John Tarpy, a student in the Master of Organizational Leadership (MOL) program at Lourdes College, is already using his newly acquired education to get into the cruise business.

Tarpy recently was accredited as an independent cruise specialist for CruiseOne, a division of World Travel Holdings. With more than 600 independently owned and operated franchises across the country, CruiseOne combines the latest technology with old-fashioned customer service to provide customers with the best possible travel plans.

In order to receive accreditation, Tarpy had to pass the company’s intensive training program with a curriculum in sales and marketing, hands-on computer orientation, product briefings by major cruise lines and onboard ship inspections.

“I researched the franchise for two or three months as I had a lot of questions about it,” Tarpy said.

The company is a global leader in the travel industry and leading seller of cruises in North America, Tarpy said.

“I fell in love with the company and I’m having a lot of fun working with them. I enjoy helping people and already helped a woman who was interested in joining CruiseOne,” said Tarpy. “CruiseOne has a mentor program and I think I would like to become a mentor with them.”

John Tarpy on the Oasis of the Seas during his training for CruiseOne.

Tarpy said the support CruiseOne provides is incredible with access to all cruise lines around the world and matching the best prices available. It also connects him with companies for land vacations.

He went for one week of training in November at CruiseOne’s headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It involved working eight to 10 hours a day with presentations by two cruise lines per day, he said.

His training also included making a ship inspection aboard the Oasis of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, in order to become professionally certified. Tarpy is a member of the Cruise Line International Association and expects to earn certification within one year.

He said he is working with Mark Bryant, a franchise coordinator with CruiseOne to open his business officially later this month. He already has a Web link with CruiseOne at www.CruiseOne.com/jtarpy.

Tarpy said that he was fortunate to get an ad for his cruise business in the local Yellow Pages directory for 2011 that is due out in February.

Tarpy credits his educational experience in the MOL program at Lourdes with assisting him in achieving his goal to operate his own business.

“The MOL changes you, opens your mind and helps bring your life and career experiences together. Everything seems possible. You learn so much about yourself and the right way to do things,” Tarpy said.

“I don’t want to send people on a cruise or vacation that isn’t right for them,” he said.

He is working on a research project about women in political leadership for the final stage of the MOL. Tarpy said that he intends to write a book about organizational structure after he completes the program at Lourdes.

“I just love it and the people at Lourdes. The professors teach with empathy, which is important,” Tarpy said.

The MOL program at Lourdes seeks to enhance critical thinking, higher-order reasoning and ethical virtue in leadership. Principles of scientifically developed leadership and their application to real-world challenges are the core of the academic curriculum, according to the college.

Tarpy had worked as a controller and chief financial officer for two companies after earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting from UT. After being unemployed for a couple years, he decided to go into business for himself and enrolled in the MOL at Lourdes.

Tarpy had never been on a cruise or ship before getting involved with CruiseOne.

“My parents had been on several cruises and I thought it would be exciting and it is,” he said.

‘Uh-oh, Here Comes Christmas’ at Lourdes College

The Lourdes College Drama Society presents its third annual production of “Uh-oh, Here Comes Christmas” Dec. 3 through Dec. 5.

“Uh-oh, Here Comes Christmas” takes a comedic look at the struggle to find the holiday spirit. The performance is a series of small sketches based on best-selling author Robert Fulgham’s (“All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.”) short stories.

“It’s funny and it’s kind of poignant,” said Keith Ramsdell, the drama society’s advisor. “I refer to a sense in the play that there are kind of ‘Linus’ moments. It’s not just the funny ha ha moments of Christmas, but what are some of the real reasons for Christmas.”

The shorter performance is family friendly and fits in with other holiday classics and traditions such as “Nutcracker,” Ramsdell said.

Performances are Dec. 3 and Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. and Dec. 5 at 2 p.m. at the Ebeid Student Center on the lower level of McAlear Hall. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door.

Five for Fighting brings acoustic slice to Lourdes

“Slice,” Five for Fighting’s latest single, pays tribute to Don McLean and his classic, “American Pie.”

John Ondrasik was excited to receive feedback from the legendary singer-songwriter.

“Don McLean for the first time responded to his homage, and he was very pleased with the song,” he said. “You never know when you write a song that references other songs how the songwriter is going to react, but he seemed to be very happy.”

Ondrasik wrote the track with composer Stephen Schwartz, best known for writing the musicals “Wicked” and “Godspell.”

“We were in a coffeehouse and looking through my book and hit upon this ‘Slice’ idea and, very cliché, but he grabbed a napkin and started writing lyrics down,” Ondrasik recalled. “About a half hour after we started working on it, ‘American Pie’ came on the radio in the coffeehouse, so we’re like we’re doing something really right or really wrong because some of the music gods are giving us a sign.”

The song is peppered with nods to some of Ondrasik’s favorite musicians.

John Ondrasik

“It references how music now is kind of so niche-driven we don’t have those big songs that we can bond together as a country, as a nation, mark our lives by,” he explained during a call from Los Angeles. “When I was a kid, we had music and sports and Pong. Now we have a thousand cable channels, the Internet, video games, so obviously music is less relevant in children’s and young people’s lives to a certain extent.

“But I do hope that it can still have a cultural impact, and that’s the message of ‘Slice.’ ”

The singer-songwriter who records under the name Five for Fighting penned the influential “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” a Grammy-nominated hit in 2001.

“I was definitely in a stage of my artistic career that most songwriters go through: I was being rejected by every record label, I was being passed on, I was kind of frustrated,” the pianist and guitarist said. “Thinking back on ‘Superman’ right now, I’ve had the experience over the last 10 to 15 years of meeting people with real challenges, folks like our troops who face serious challenges. ‘Superman’ is not a song I could write today because, frankly, it is pretty easy to be me.”

He added, “I did always feel that people who heard it could relate to the sentiment, the kind of at-the-end-of-the-day-we’re-all-human sentiment, and never could have imagined it could have obtained what it did. I still enjoy playing that song; I did a show last weekend and probably played ‘Superman’ for the 8,000th time, but I still enjoy singing it.”

Fans will hear an acoustic version of that number and more from the 2009 “Slice” disc when Five for Fighting plays an 8 p.m. show Nov. 13 at the Franciscan Theatre at Lourdes College in Sylvania. Tickets are $26.

“Music can be many things: It can be an escape, it can be an inspiration, it can be a distraction, it can be a teaching tool, it can be cathartic, it can be something fun to jog to — that’s what music is for me and, hopefully, some of my songs resonate that way for other folks.”